Ex-judge on trial says executions were legal

April 07, 2006|By Aamer Madhani, Tribune staff reporter.

BAGHDAD — The man who sentenced 148 Iraqis to death at the behest of Saddam Hussein testified Thursday that he was only following the law.

Awad Hamed al-Bandar presided as judge over the perfunctory trials of the men and teenage boys of the Shiite village of Dujail who were rounded up, tried and executed after a failed assassination attempt on Hussein. In his defense, al-Bandar told the Iraqi Special Tribunal on Thursday that the law required him to mete out the punishment.

"There was proof that they had taken part in the [assassination attempt]," al-Bandar told the judge, Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman, who is overseeing the 6-month-old trial of Hussein, al-Bandar and five others accused in the Dujail case. "They were all found guilty. If you had the case in front of you, you would have had completely the same verdict."

Hussein has admitted in court that he approved the death sentences and said the response was legal. The former president and his six co-defendants could be hanged if convicted on charges of crimes against humanity for arbitrarily imprisoning and torturing hundreds and executing 148 men and boys after the July 1982 incident in Dujail.

Hussein and the others allegedly were trying to exact revenge against the entire village, including many people who had nothing to do with the assassination attempt.

One lawyer for all

Al-Bandar testified that the suspects were treated fairly, even though only one attorney was appointed to defend them. He also said he deliberated and handed down verdicts for all the cases by putting in 15-hour workdays over 16 days.

Al-Bandar was the only one of the defendants to appear in court Thursday. He was brought in as prosecutors presented documents that listed the names of the executed, verdicts and a letter from al-Bandar that counseled that the hundreds of suspects rounded up and imprisoned after the assassination attempt should face maximum punishment.

The trial, which has moved very slowly and has been marked by repeated tirades from Hussein and his co-defendants, is in the final stretch, U.S. officials said. In the coming weeks, the defense will present its case, and closing arguments will be made.

The verdict could come in June or July, said a U.S. diplomat working closely with the court.

Earlier this week, the tribunal announced that a second case against Hussein and five other co-defendants has been referred to a trial judge and would probably start in the coming months. In that case, Hussein and Ali Hassan Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali," are accused of genocide and crimes against humanity for systematic annihilation of tens of thousands of Kurds in northern Iraq in the late 1980s in a bloody operation that included chemical weapons. The four other defendants are accused only of crimes against humanity

The U.S. diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak for the Iraqi court, said the Dujail case and the genocide case could be tried concurrently. But due to logistical reasons, the genocide case is not likely to start until after the Dujail trial is completed.

Defendant on edge

Al-Bandar was on edge through much of Thursday's court session and repeatedly raised his hand and stood up to counter what prosecutors and the judge said. At one point, Abdel-Rahman told al-Bandar that he must "calm down" and that he was worried the elderly defendant looked tired.

The former Revolutionary Court judge stood firmly behind his argument that the executions were within the law and said it was necessary to deal with "traitors" who were working with the blacklisted Dawa Party, a Shiite opposition group that had ties to Iran. At the time of the incident, Iraq and Iran were at war. Al-Bandar said all those executed had confessed.

Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi noted that some of the executed were young and pointed out the identity card of one young person, whose age was listed as 15.

"He was a minor . . . and he was tried and sentenced to death by the Revolutionary Court," he said.

Al-Bandar said no minors were executed. Al-Bandar said he asked the defendants their ages. If there were any question, he would send them to doctors for a medical examination to determine their ages.

He also said many of the suspects had forged identification with misrepresented ages. Such identification was common, he said, as young men were trying to avoid military service.

There was also heated debate about documents that were presented by the prosecution to bolster its case. The documents appeared to be lists of the accused as well as the verdicts against the defendants. Al-Bandar and his defense team complained that the prosecution was withholding files that contain evidence and other information that would prove al-Bandar was acting within the law.

The prosecution countered that they have shared all the evidence they have collected with the defense.